Thursday, April 16, 2015

What is the Painting “Kissing the Moon”?


The Short Answer (TSA)

16 April 2015

            Kissing the Moon” is a painting by American Realist artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910).  The painting’s title, “Kissing the Moon,” is clearly suggested by the scene.  The phrase “kissing the moon” had no prior nautical meaning.
            Homer, like many American artists, never developed a style imitative of the familiar French Impressionism of his time.  But, like the impressionists, American Realists rejected a photographic reproduction of scenes. Rather, they favored more of an illustrator’s approximation of real appearance.  And, like the impressionists, American artists, also, rejected self-consciously posed studio scenes in favor of genre scenes – scenes of men in women engaged in ordinary activities and, apparently, unaware of the artist’s presence.
 
            Homer’s career, like those of so many artists, had more than its share of financial struggle.  But, unlike most artists, even in youth, Homer received widespread critical acclaim for his work.  He survived, during most of his early career, by working as an illustrator for popular magazines and became widely known for his depictions of scenes of the Civil War while on assignment for Harper’s Weekly.  

            Homer’s artistic style continued to evolve throughout his life.  “Kissing the Moon” was painted rather late in Homer’s life, in1904, when the artist was in his late 60’s.  

            I’ll leave off at this point because I don’t want or need to say too much.  Art is one of those things that, in the end, must speak for itself.                                          

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

What is the “Song, ‘Moonlight Becomes You’”?

9 April 2015

The Short Answer (TSA)

Moonlight Becomes You in the film, Road to Morocco

The song Moonlight Becomes You is most associated with singer Bing Crosby.  And that makes sense because the music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burck for Bing Crosby to be performed in the 1942 Paramount film, Road to Morocco. 

Link to Wikipedia: Moonlight Becomes You (Song)
In case you can’t connect with the link above or there’s some problem with your audio, in part, the lyrics go:

Moonlight becomes you, it goes with your hair
You certainly know the right thing to wear.
Moonlight becomes you, I'm thrilled at the sight
And I could get so romantic tonight.
. . .
If I say, "I love you,"
I want you to know
It's not just because there's moonlight
Although, moonlight becomes you so.
. . .

In the film, Bing Crosby sings Moonlight Becomes You to costar Dorothy Lamour in the absence of the film's other costar, Bob Hope.   In the film, an explosion destroys a ship during an ocean voyage leaving all those on-board healthy and alive.   But when they are rescued, two unidentified stowaways, played by Crosby and Hope, are missing.   


Managing to reach shore, the pair find themselves stranded in the desert where they are captured and one of them (there is some confusion about which one), is sold as a slave to Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour).  All the while, the Princess is being fiercely pursued by an Arab suitor played by Anthony Quinn.

Dorothy Lamour

Wikipedia: Road to Morraco
Wikipedia:  “Dorothy Lamour”

This, along with several other “Road Movies,” are part of a comedy series made with Crosby and Hope as costars.  Often underestimated by contemporary and modern critics, the “Road Pictures” fared quite well both in terms of box office receipts and critical acclaim.  The Road to Morocco was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Sound Recording and Best Writing – Original Screenplay.  In the year 2000, the American Film Institute ranked Road to Morocco 78th of the 100th funniest movies of all time. 

In no small part, the enduring appeal of these films can be traced to the performances of Crosby and Hope, themselves, who individually, and together, always brought the extremely well written scripts to life with self-effacing, though thoroughly professional, performances.

In the 1962 film, Road to Hong Kong, the pair are kidnapped by a super-villain patterned after the villains of the early James Bond films.  When Hope sees sharks being kept in a nearby tank, he calls out an alarm to Crosby.  After the suggestion that the sharks aren’t “man-eaters,” Hope nervously adds, “But what if they only eat actors!”  Crosby gives Hope a conspicuous sidelong glance with the words, “We’re safe."  

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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

What is the “Rabbit in the Moon”?

02 April 2015

The Short Answer (TSA)

            What is the moon rabbit?  Well, simply put, some people see a man’s face in the peaks, valleys, and craters of the moon’s surface.  Others see a rabbit.  Yes, a rabbit.

            Man or rabbit, the psychological term for these perceptions are “pareidolic images.”  Human beings have been seeing the shapes of faces, animals and many, many other things in the clouds since forever.  It’s so easy that it’s played as a game.  But some pareidolic images persist and become part of the traditions of particular cultures.

            But to become traditional, it helps if people see the image in a rock (like the moon) instead of a cloud.  Why?  Because, unlike clouds, rocks don’t change so much over time.  So, when you see the shape of a man’s face, or the shape of a rabbit on the face of the moon, there’s plenty of time to tell everyone you know about it – to “popularize” your version of what you see.
            The man in the moon has a long, long history in western Europe.  Surprisingly, so does the “rabbit in the moon” in some other cultures such as East Asian folklore and Aztec mythology.  In China, the rabbit is portrayed as the companion of moon goddess Chang’e. 
                           The Moon Rabbit?
            Apparently, the goddess has been on the moon for a long, long time, because her rabbit companion is using an apothecary’s (pharmacist’s) mortar and pestle to mix a batch of the elixir of life for to keep her young and alive.  On the other hand, the Japanese and Koreans seem to see Chang’e as forever young.  And the goddess doesn’t need a rabbit to help her stay that way.  Instead, in these cultures, Chang’e just likes cake.  And guess what the rabbit in the moon is preparing for her?  This bunny is mixing the ingredients needed to make rice cake.                          

            Sometimes, called the Gold Rabbit or the Jade Rabbit, this latter name, the Chinese Yutu, was selected in an online poll as the name of the Chinese lunar rover.